All animals, including humans, begin life as a single cell. During the first few hours of development, that initial cell and its progeny make a series of crucial decisions that ultimately lead to the formation of organs and structures of the adult organism. The principal aim of developmental biology is to understand how these amazing processes occur.
In the past two decades, the explosion of information and novel techniques in molecular biology and genetics has armed modern embryologists with powerful tools with which to dissect the molecular basis of development. Recent studies have illustrated a remarkable conservation of molecular and cellular developmental strategies among embryos of different species. The future of developmental biology therefore relies on a comparative approach, especially in the post-genome era.
Molecular Principles of Animal Development stands perfectly within this context. Martinez Arias and Stewart's rationale is to approach developmental biology, primarily from a molecular perspective. Thus...
